In 2022, Congress passed an amendment banning the possession, sale, and consumption of meat. It became illegal to slaughter any animal for any purpose, including food consumption, effectively making pest control and an omnivore lifestyle against the law. To destroy a wasp nest or a fire ant hill required copious paperwork, and still, the request may be denied. Eat a chicken leg, pork chop, or steak and face possible prosecution.

Many Americans with a carnivorous appetite were not ready to comply with the ban, and like during alcohol prohibition a hundred years ago, a black market quickly prospered. There were many meat busts as law enforcement scoured the countryside looking for evidence of spilled animal blood. Stings were set up to catch meat consumers, and meat pushers became increasingly creative in evading law enforcement.

Robert Conway enjoyed his steak. He grew up on a cattle ranch. Of course, the ranch no longer exists. First, the government tried to tax his parents out of business.

When that failed to destroy them, the government levied penalties for environmental concerns. There was little left of the ranch when it was seized by the government as soon as the new law came into effect. Meat consumption was terrible for the environment.

When Robert finished his steak, he carefully cleaned the evidence away, wiping, scrubbing, sanitizing the kitchen counters, stove, table and chairs, right down to the kitchen floor. Then he gathered the kitchen towels, stripped off his outer clothing, and put everything to wash immediately. A fresh jasmine room freshener consumed the room in a flowery scent.

Angela Conway worried about her father. She knew he ate meat occasionally; she had even caught him at it once. Her father was a gentle soul with a kind heart. After her mother’s death, he buried himself in his research and development projects, shunning all social engagements. Robert Conway had always been a law-abiding citizen before meat prohibition. He enjoyed a successful career in robotic engineering. His one weakness was his inability or unwillingness to succumb to a vegetarian diet. Possessing and eating meat was illegal, whether he liked it or not. The law is the law.

Robert did worry about getting busted. Meat raids of an entire building of apartments by the police can happen at any time. Robert has survived two such raids already. And penalties were harsh; five years for the first offense and imprisonment for life after that.  If he were ever caught, his lustrous career would end; thus, the careful precautions.

It troubled Robert morally that he was breaking the law. Still, he rationalized his criminal behavior reflecting that humans had consumed meat protein for millennia before environmentalists and animal protectionists managed to convince the government to make it illegal. The robot prototype he has been working on in his apartment has a small hidden freezer located in its interior workings. The price of black-market meat was exorbitant, but his comfortable salary covered it.

Robert was not alone. The demand for black market meat was tremendous. Meat trafficking grew rampantly. Most of the illegal meat trafficking came from across the Canadian border, where meat was still legal. The government cracked down harder, but securing the entire Canadian/American border became a monumental endeavor. A $10,000 award was offered for any leads that resulted in arrests. Neighbors became bounty hunters.

One such neighbor lived across the hall from Robert Conway. She was sure she had smelled the odor of cooking meat seeping from his apartment.

She called the police.

Robert was not home when the police raided his home.

They ransacked the place looking for hidden freezer compartments in floors, walls, furniture, and appliances.

Then one of the officers noticed the prototype robot was a bit cool to the touch. The officer axed open the body of the robot and found the hidden freezer unit inside. It contained several steaks, a pound of sausage, and four pork chops.

Returning from work, Robert noticed several police cars in the neighborhood and suspected the worse. He bolted from his vehicle and took off running as police tried to close in. The police gunned Robert Conway down for resisting arrest.

His daughter Angela Conway protested his death. Her father had been unarmed and had no previous criminal record.  Angela was arrested as a dissident and imprisoned for life without parole.

Two years later, meat was decriminalized, and the first highly taxed, highly regulated legal meat shop opened in Dallas, Texas. Soon meat shops were opened in all 52 states.

Still, years passed before many meat offenders were finally released from jail. But Angela Conway had not been arrested for illegal possession of meat; she had been arrested as a dissident threatening to overthrow the government. Fifty years after her arrest, Angela Conway died in prison at the age of 91.